From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capital Journal.

Today was the seventh day of the Alabama Legislature's 2026 regular session.

There had been some concern that the winter weather, especially in north Alabama, might delay this session.

But thankfully, all the icy roads had thawed out.

By the time it was time for lawmakers to head south to the capital city, we'll start our coverage in the Alabama House of Representatives, which took up a full slate of bills today, including House Bill 41 from state Representative Matt Simpson of Mobile.

This legislation would change Alabama's sentencing laws to allow for the death penalty for anyone convicted of child rape, a rape or sodom of a child under the age of 12.

The arguments were familiar what is constitutional and what is not.

What is up punishable, what punishments befit, what crimes and which don't.

Those arguments were played out on the House floor for more than an hour.

In the end, opponents and proponents of the bill said the arguments were civil but serious.

To start out, I'm very pleased with the vote today.

I'm very pleased that we're able to move this bill back to the Senate.

So confiden with the support of the speaker, with support of Governor Ivey, support of so many senators that have reached out, including the pro Tem Garland governor and most importantly, speak up.

Senator April Weaver and her support.

I feel very good about where we stand to get this bill through the Senate.

Generally speaking, most o the time the victim in this case is related to the perpetrator, meaning it could be the past or the grandfather, grandmother or uncle, somebody they love.

So at this point, my focus is more on the victim and the life that they lead.

After being victimized and focused on wantin to see the defendant executed.

So making the victim to carry forth that burden to not only suffer from the abuse, but to also have to participate in the decision to love whether or not that person lives or dies, could ultimately discourage them from ever participating in the first place.

As Representative Simpson said, that bill passed and now goes to the Senate.

The vote was 75 to 26 in the Senate.

President Pro Tem Garlan Gunter talked about that bill's path in the Senat starting in committee tomorrow.

When we put it that into the first reading today.

So you'll probably have that in committee tomorrow.

I'm asking for us to hold that for a week so that people can put their fingerprints on it up here.

But I don't think something of that nature needs to be fast tracked.

But I do think that as we go through that particular bill, and the consequences in that particular bill, people need to kno exactly what they're voting on so they can vote their conscience.

I'm in favor of the bill, and I'm looking forward to it coming probably on the floor i the next week, week and a half.

But, it will be in committee tomorrow.

And here's a look at other notable bills passing today.

House Bill 78 from State Representative Gina Ross of Guntersville, would limit the amount of screen time allowed for children in licensed daycares, first clas pre-K and public kindergarten.

Ross says the research shows too much time spent on tablets and phones is detrimental t a child's cognitive development.

That bill now goes to the Senate House Bill 181 from State Representative marks of enterpris would set stricter requirements for the depositing of mud like material in mobile Bay.

This came up as an issue from the recen dredging of the Port of Mobile.

Again, it goes to the Senate.

House Bill 168 from State Representative Jamie Keel of Russellville would clarify when it is and when it isn't permissible to wear a mask when participating in public demonstrations, including on college campuses and Senate Bill 136 from State Senator Chris Elliott of Josephine will consolidate the Alabama Massage Therapy Board to report to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

This is part of an ongoing effort to reform occupational licensing boards in Alabama.

And that bill now goes to the Senate or to the House, rather.

Turning to politics for a bit.

House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter made waves this morning while speaking at the Business Council of Alabama's weekly morning meeting.

He made it clear he would be backing State Representative James Lomax in his reelection bid in House district 20, and he was sharply critical of Lomax's new challenger, former Congressman Mo Brooks.

I'm going to say, you know, you got somebody like a gene flow match.

That is an outstanding young man.

That's super superstar.

As a future leade of this state, without question.

And what he's done for Huntsville, Alabama, and the growth of the show and and the work he's put into it to try to make it through that way.

Then you got somebody like Mo Brooks running against him that has failed in ever office, has been.

Go back to the future.

I mean, this is not about politics.

This is about running this state in a manner where we can succeed.

And the last time I lose the las poll was an Alabama legislature approval rating by the people that say, 68%.

The last time I looked Mo Brooks was approval rating when he was in Congress, just 58%.

And Brooks, for his part, fired back at Ledbetter, pointing to his long history of electoral success going back to the 1980s.

We'll take a quick break and be back with State Representative Curtis Travis of Tuscaloosa.

And after that, Doctor Da Puckett, chairman of the Alabama Holocaust Commission, joins me to talk about International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Stay with us.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online anytime at Alabama Public Television's website.

App tv.org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes o Capital Journal's Facebook page.

Senator, statesman, and U.S.

Vice President William Rufus King of Dallas County, served in the US Senate for more than 30 years.

In 1852, King was elected vice president on the ticket with Franklin Pierce whil recovering from illness in Cuba.

King became the only member of the US executive branch to ever have been sworn into office on foreign soil.

He passed away less than a month after being inaugurated.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is State Representativ Curtis Travis from Tuscaloosa.

Representative thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you.

Glad to be here.

And and this is actually my second time for you.

And I didn't realize that.

But my son one day said I said I have been we were watching the show and he said, yes, you have let me g and research it and put it up.

So I'm glad to be here with you.

It's always that YouTube is very handy.

Oh yeah, every episode is there.

We try to remind folks.

What?

No, I appreciate you coming on.

And, you know, that reminds me.

Yeah, you've been on before.

Probably right after you were real.

You were elected, right?

Because you were no finishing your first term.

Yeah.

Let me ask you.

I mean, just from your perspective, I always say you're not a freshman anymore after that first session.

You know, you're not right as you got plenty of experience in the first session.

But how does this first term gone and I guess good enough to run for reelection?

Well, it it has, you know, it's, it's opportunity to serve the community, you know, and I think with the committees that I'm on, it allows me with my background to really be able to play in and do some things and see Alabama in a different, you know, perspective.

And what I mean that, you know, like I'm on ports and waterways transportation.

You infrastructure or agriculture farms and, and campaign finance, campaign ethics.

So, you know, the stuff like ports and waterways, you know, we dealing with the port of Mobile are the deepest port on the Gulf of Mexico.

The the opportunities that that's going to bring to the state and not only just the state, but it's also that opportunity, you know, with the with the port facilities, you know, to do some inland ports developments and stuff like that.

You know I just see so many things that, you know, happened in here, you know, and it and didn't particularly in the counties that I think, you know, one of the areas that we're dealing with is the western corner, which, you know, we get in everything.

But I think folding in the west in the corner, giving us a good solid following transportation up to Tuscaloosa allows us to be able to brin stuff in from the port by trucks and stuff like that, and warehousing facilities, other type of possibilities that will be available, you know, Tuscaloosa Black Belt, you know, Hale County places along that route that can make a big difference in everything.

Yeah.

The connection to the port is really good there.

Look, I wanted to ask you about one of your bills that's starting to get moving, and that is House Bill 85 has to do with appraisals, appraisals of property.

This can be a touchy subject.

This is, you know came up a couple of years ago.

As you know, property prices, go up and that means taxes go up.

Right.

So what did your bill do with what my bill does?

And I think when you're looking at the law, i it sets in place for appraisals.

Still annuall is every three years, you know.

So every three year you're following the appraisal.

And then if that means increases in the appraisal price, then the next three years before it allows that amount of the increase to be average starter those three years.

So what we're doing, we're making it, keeping it where people don't have to every year, you know, don't know what to expect.

You know, at the end of the, year when the tax bill comes through.

And I think that's I've heard from some people, you know if you got multiple properties, you know, that becomes an issue, you know, and in the process we have to try to contest it.

You know, most people, you know, 30 minutes.

And how how do you ho do you come across this value.

Because you know, what you say is worth it.

And on a realist like the market is using that that same comparison.

So what this does is doesn't take any money away from cameras and stuff.

But what it does, it keeps the, you know, the amount equa the over three year time period.

Or wasn't it?

Pretty much because like I said, we phased in the increases.

Yeah.

But it's not like you know, you're cutting taxes but you're keeping it for that so that people can manage the amount, you know, a lot easier and everything.

So more manageable.

Yeah, right.

I noticed tha because I bought my first home about five years ago.

Okay.

And started getting those appraisals.

And I'd say, hey man, this is great.

I house this without any value.

Then it's like, wait a second, your taxes just went up too.

But I was really surprised a the amount that it would go up.

Like, how could it possibly have increased that much?

And it was year after year.

So I understand the need for, I guess I don't know, more manageable, more stable conditions like that because yeah, I would imagine I'll all over the state you're seeing some some shock value, right.

There's some shock value.

And then we have to rule out in particular in urban areas because we have to realize, you know, not that we say, but it's someone has, commercial properties, you know, that's something, you know, they still pay taxes on everything.

And if you start jumping those values up, you know, $1 million here, a million.

I have a $2 million from on year to the next and everything that normal becomes pretty great.

So what we trying to do is figure out, you know we're not taking anything away.

We just said, okay, you praised the this year and this is what the amount is, the increase is and that we're doing it for three years.

So let's phas in an increase here three years.

The next three years you com back and everything like that.

And it's been a push back, you know, from you kno I think the county is in Karen municipal government committee right now.

I'm trying to get a public hearing on this.

So I was going to ask you, where is this bill and what might we see in the next couple weeks?

Well, I'm talking to the chairman of Reading Room, about, you know, trying to at least get a, hearing on and everything I know.

So says the county commissioner.

Now, they're they're a little worried about, you know, that way they feel like it may hurt County, you know, from the finance and everything.

But what I see it is it's not that it's hurting them, but it would just make it for the consumer make to Texas, where they are affordable and something they can adjust to deal with.

You know, if you're like me, most folks operate from a budget, you know, and everything like that.

So when you start dealing with that and then in particular, if you got property that's really not income producing property, you know, it's it becomes a little bit harde to to deal with and everything.

And, and that's somethin we definitely want to make sure property tax is not one of those things that's wrong.

And people say, well, you mentioned about affordability and that's really become the watchword here recently.

And we only got about a minute left.

But I wanted to ask you about that, because y'all, as a caucus, Democratic caucus has made tha really the theme of your agenda this session.

But it goes beyond that.

There's a lot of people talking nationally about, you know, people are still seeing really high costs, whether it's at the grocery store, whether it's, you know, healt care bills and things like that.

So, broadly speaking, is this kind of fit into y'all's, agenda of trying to bring down costs, understanding the families out there, getting squeezed it it does.

And when I started the project, it was just dealing with it from some people.

Friends of ours was talking about this issue and I said, well, maybe we can deal with it.

But then, you know and that was last spring, too.

I started working o and trying to get the details.

But then when it came in, you know, it did fit into the whole agenda where we were talking abou affordability because, you know, going to people we oftentimes talk abou groceries and stuff like that.

But, you know look at let's look at vehicles.

You know, when you start talking about, you know, pickup truck, you know, nowadays you buy a new pickup truck, you have $100,000 easily.

You know, nowadays you're talking about affordability.

You know, I'm talking about a truck that I can remember.

It used to be $30,000.

You thought that was hard now, not nine, 900,000 with that.

That's you know, that's affordability.

You know, one of the big problems we have right now, affordability.

We're getting people first time homebuyers.

We oftentime talk about that for beginning, you know, workers you know, to try to have homes and everything that's becomes an issue on the affordability of what they can afford.

And everything.

So we have to loo at all of that, at everything, you know, and and when your increase, your income is not as great as the cost, you know, to get people getting the squeeze.

And we need to try to find out ways to help people keep more dollars in their pocket and make it where they can afford the things, you know, like that.

Because when you're talking about insurance cars, even though we look at the the Affordable Care Act and you know that those premiums were wiped out and the cost increase and the increase in stuff like that.

But me and you know that, you know, those people who are not on the Affordable Care, look what answers premiums do this well.

And I saw a statistic the other day that is really the hospital care i skyrocketing more than anything.

And of course, insurance has to keep up with that because because hospital visits are so expensive.

So it's a lot out there.

We're out of time.

Tell your son one more visit to add to the catalog of Capital Journal visits, and I hope we have many more.

Okay.

I would definitely do that.

Appreciate it.

And you know, and he's actuall works with the city of Athens.

He's part of the communications team.

So they've been really busy these last few days with all that ice and stuff update and everything.

So absolutely we'll send our best wishes.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

Alabama Public Television is your place for quality educational services.

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Birmingham entrepreneur and businessman A.G.

Gasto was one of the most successful African-American business owners in Alabama.

Gaston overcame humble beginnings and racial discrimination to build a $40 million business empire.

Gaston work behind the scenes to financially support the civil rights movement, created an employee stock option and sold his insurance company to his employees for a fraction of its value.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

And joining me to talk about that is Doctor Dan Puckett, professor at Troy University and chair of the Alabama Holocaust Commission.

Dan, thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

Well, it it is so importan to mark this day, international, Holocaust Day of Remembrance.

Talk about the importance in all your work of of making sure that we mark and accurately mark the history of the Holocaust.

Yeah.

Over 20 years ago the United Nations established, January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

It's the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, which 19th January 1945.

So this is the 81s anniversary of the liberation.

And what it's designed to do is to create an international awareness, of Holocaust and Holocaust education for us to preserve the memory of what happened an ensure it never happens again.

Oh, absolutely.

You were mentioning all fair that you got to go.

You were invited to attend.

I did, and part of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Talk about it had to be a moving experience to be there to see, you know, all the more I've heard, at least it' an incredibly moving experience.

It really was.

As I told you I'm a member of an organization called the Association of Holocaust Organizations.

It's an international organization, basically the US Holocaust Museum.

And, and other, centers and state commissions, throughout the United States and even international are a part of this.

And I was invited to be part of the delegation to represent the organization and also represent Alabama, at Auschwitz-Birkenau, last January.

And it was an incredibly moving experience.

The survivors that were there, I got to, to meet and talk to many of those, heads of state, were there, you know, you had King Charles, you had, President Zelensky, President Macron, others that were all there, even, some local governors, at least regionally, for us, Brian Kemp, from Georgia was ther I got to meet and talk to him.

So it was to be there in this huge tent at Birkenau with the survivors and hearing the stories an being in a place where so much, had had transpired, was incredibly moving.

We spent two weeks touring, around Poland to the various sites, where much of the crimes had taken place, in places where, the Jewish populations had had lived prior to the Holocaust.

And then it really culminated, on the 27th that Auschwitz-Birkenau.

It was, I think, the most movin experience I've I've ever had.

You mentioned those survivors.

That generation is really dying off, right?

We were losing that that entire firsthand knowledge, you know, of the Holocaust.

And so that gets me to that question about how do we, the accurately preserve, that history.

I know that you were involved in, the update of Alabamas social studies standards and things like that, making sure that our, the way we teach history and things like that is accurate.

Was that a part of what was, kind of those updates and changes?

Yeah.

No, what every it's I think it's supposed to be every 7 or 8 years.

The standards are supposed to be updated to, to stay current.

And the Alabama Social Study standards hadn't been updated since 2010.

So it was time.

It was time.

And, I was fortunate enough to be appointed, part of that task force.

And we were able and it wasn't just me.

It was there was, a commitment, by the Department of Education, a commitment, by our elected officials that we really did need to strengthen Holocaust education.

And so we were able to expand, education, standards on the Holocaust in the ninth grade in world history in the 11th grade, U.S history, and we created an entire, elective course, on the Holocaust.

And having reviewed standards of every state in the Union, we can now say we have the most comprehensive and strongest standards on teaching the Holocaust in the nation.

That's terrific to hear.

I hope everybody takes that i and we'll do some more reporting on that.

But, you know, this comes at a time where, frankly, it's just really challenging out there because you've got ever since October 7th, you had, 2023, you have had you'v seen this rise in anti-Semitism.

And I guess that was to be expected, you know, for, for reasons.

But that has explode not just on the, like, neo-Nazi.

Right We we know who those people are.

We know marching in Skokie and things like that.

But it's also expanded o the left, exploded on the left in term of some of these demonstrations we see we see so much online, social media, memes.

I can distort things.

And all of it seems to b driving one side or the other.

Right.

But so much anti-Semitism gets in there.

And when you'r driving an anti-Semitic message, what better way than to distort or diminish the true atrocities of the Holocaust?

I see it as a problem out there.

I'm wondering in your academic career and your advocacy, how do we combat stuff like that?

I know that I'm asking a lo because it is a huge challenge.

It is, and it's something tha we struggle with as educators.

And I don't mean to sound trite to say will more education, but really education is the way we have to combat this.

You're right.

It's not just anti-Semitism.

On the right, which is generally where it had resided, but now generate, anti-Semitism on the far left.

What we have to d and what Holocaust education is all about is historical accuracy.

We have to be accurate.

The distortion is the greatest, threat now, not so much denial, bu how do we distorted and with AI, there have been so many images and so forth that, mock, much of what we do, and what we teach.

So it it's we focus on the history, the accuracy, being, in essence, very, scrupulous in how we present this, you know, Holocaust education is about historical accuracy.

It's not about, any sort of, partizan, politics or claims of that nature.

No agenda?

No.

There's absolutely no agenda.

But what we have to do is to be very aware of of what we are teaching and how we're teaching it, to avoid any, any sort of, frivolous claims or outlandish claims that often get associated, now with the Holocaust.

Right.

Absolutely.

It never again means never again.

And I really appreciate your work on this.

Thank you for representing Alabama the way you have, and for working hard to update, like you said, our our socialist curriculum so importan that young people get it right, you know, understand the true facts of everything.

And so, you know, I really appreciate yo coming on and sharing all this with yo and hope to see you again soon.

I hope so, too.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

Appy tv.org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes o Capital Journal's Facebook page.

The Alabama Department o Archives and History was founded in 1901, becoming the nation's first publicly funded independent state archives agency.

The archives identifies, preserves, and makes accessible records and artifacts of enduring historical value to the state.

Thomas owned, founded the agency and served as its first director.

He was succeeded by his wife, Marie Banchero, who headed the archives for 35 years and was the second woman to lead a state agency.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night with more coverage of the Alabama legislature right here on Alabama Public Television.

For our Capital Journal team, I'm Todd States.

We'll see you next time.

On.